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Meet The Artist: Ivan Marchuk

He is compared to Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Pavel Filonov, called “maestro of the highest prestige”, Rembrandt of our days. Not always even fully comprehending his works, people are drawn to them. Who is the genius of the brush?Ivan Marchuk is the only Ukrainian artist recognized by International Academy of Modern Art in Rome as the member of the “Golden Guild”Ivan Marchuk was born in 1936, a family of a weaver, in a Western Ukrainian village. He studied applied art in Lviv till 1965.The artist works tirelessly to create his own pictorial style. He finds inspiration in the most ordinary things.In the late 1980s he emigrated to Australia, then traveled to Canada and the USA. But, he was always drawn back to his native land.

“I have to see beauty everywhere, and I want to recreate it. Nowhere in the world is there such a beautiful land as here.” “Give me a thousand more years and I’ll paint heaven.”He has created his own art technique, which he calls “Pliontanism” (from the Ukrainian “pliontaty” – to weave, knit). Instead of painting with the usual strokes, he traces and weaves amazing lace networks on his canvas.“There were times when people stood in front of a painting for half an hour. It’s abstract, but it’s done with the hands of a skilled jeweler. We sense a 3D effect.” says Maksym Voloshyn.After years of intensive work, Ivan Marchuk admits that art is both a revelation and a lot of hard work. He dreams of resting and relaxing, but returns to his studio every morning.“If you look at a painting from a distance, you’ll see an ordinary landscape, but when you come a little closer, you notice that unusual threads are woven throughout the painting.” says Maksym Voloshyn, director of Mystetska Zbirka Art Gallery.In October 2007, Marchuk was included in Britain’s list of top living geniuses, drawn up by the Daily Telegraph. This curious list, however, deserves its own post…